Real Wedding: Julia + Yuriy’s Nature and Travel Inspired Wedding

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We have such a sweet wedding to start the week off :). Not only was the bride a GWS reader, she and her new hubby are also wedding photographers. They hired their friends and super talented photographers Benj and Maddie Haisch to capture their wedding – excellent choice! A bit into their day from Julia:

Yuriy and I love nothing more than being outdoors together. Not wanting to risk Washington rain on our day, we chose to have an indoor wedding and bring the nature we love indoors. A lot of wood elements and wild-looking flower arrangements helped set a woodsy, natural theme. The venue has an old wooden beam ceiling, gray metal walls, and concrete floor which offered a great blank slate to work with. And when combined with burlap, clean white linens, and moss, set a really natural, earthy feel. Naturally, as lovers of vintage, there was an old-time feel with the vintage furniture, plates, props, and bridal party get-up. Because we’re traveling for half a year after the wedding (another mutual love), we incorporated a bit of a travel theme with a travel display table to share our upcoming travel plans with guests. Our wedding invites included maps to go along with the theme, and instead of thank-you cards, we’re sending our guests thank-you postcards from abroad.

I asked the girls to pick a gray dress they loved. I made all their hairpieces and the birdcage veil I wore. The long, traditional veil I wore during the ceremony was borrowed from a friend.

Photo below: W-O-W!!

How cute are her gloves?! :)

Burlap ring boy pillow sewn by Julia’s sisters.

Most memorable moment of your wedding day? After the ceremony, our 200 guests lined up outside the church doors and down the entire sidewalk to our car. As we exited the church, we got pelted with bird seed from every direction the entire way to our car, Yuriy’s old BMW, which had been decked out by our sweet bridal party with flowers, tin cans, yarn pompoms, and “just married” lettering. We couldn’t help laughing as we sped away, windows down, cans rattling, with bird seed in our hair, ears, and all the way down my dress. It was unreal to think that we were officially man and wife at last, and the joy of that car ride was definitely something to remember.

Yuriy and I are traveling the world after the wedding for half a year and writing a travel blog: Mr & Mrs Globe Trot.

Honey jar favors and lace doily garlands assembled by entire bridal party during a late night crafting party.

Any advice for those planning now? I had a year to plan my wedding, and put most things off until the last few months because I kept thinking that I’ll find something better or something cheaper. I wish I started to pick things out earlier. You can usually change your mind about things later if you have the time, but you probably won’t because more stuff comes up. It would have helped to get things checked off the list earlier.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to mention again and again that having a day-of coordinator and day-of head decorator saved us from chaos. We had nothing to worry about the day of and could focus on each other. We had so much help from close friends and family that helped us have our dream wedding on a budget. There is no way we can repay them for how much they did for us! In the last few weeks, my girls were helping me with projects day and night and even sleeping over on my couch. Involvement from friends and family made the process so much more fun and personal than if we had just hired professionals to take of everything.

Lastly, I’m glad we didn’t listen to everyone who had an opinion throughout the planning because they were used to the traditional wedding. So many people told us after the wedding that it was “so us”, and it was so sweet to hear because that’s exactly what we wanted. No one will remember the wedding as much as we will, so it better be “so us”.

Vendors
Photography: Benj Haisch
Venue: Ceremony: Queen Anne Baptist Church, Reception: 415 Westlake in Seattle, WA
Wedding Dress: Casablanca from The Elegant Bride Salon
Hair: Praskovya Dmitruk
Makeup: Tatyana Kostenko
Shoes: Seychelles
Groom Suit: custom tailored in Thailand
Cinematography: Brandon Patoc; we also rented a little video camera for our bridal party to use throughout the day which resulted in some hilarious clips
Event Design: Everything designed and planned by bride and groom! Day-of decorating and execution by Kae Zherebnenko, with help from bride/groom’s family. Bride spent countless days scouting thrift stores and garage sales for mason jars, vintage plates, fabric, vintage furniture, doilies, etc. Wood stumps and wooden table number stands were scouted out and cut by groom. Awesome rustic wood arch in the church ceremony built by groom and his boys. Fabric bunting, fabric strips, hanging mason jars, and napkin rings were cut, sewn, and assembled by bride and her girls. Most fabric was cut from vintage sheets and pillow cases (a much cheaper alternative to buying new fabric by the yard). Most cake stands were made by bride with vintage plates glued on top of tall, spray painted candle holders. Light strands on ceiling were purchased by bride and groom the day after Christmas when they were on clearance!
Event Planner: We asked a close friend to do day-of coordination (who had previous experience). Such a help! All problems/concerns were sent her way, not ours.
Floral Design: Mary Mironchuk; bride/groom also picked up buckets of additional flowers at a couple of local farms the day before (local, seasonal flowers are such a deal)
Invitations/Paper Goods: designed by bride, assembled by the bridal party
Wedding Cake: Inessa Cake; wedding cake topper made by bride with help from florist (adorable vintage teacup found on Craigslist); all other cakes/desserts baked by bride’s mom and aunts
Music: Le Trio; clarinet, bass, and accordion (our favorite!)
Catering: bride and groom’s family, head chef: groom’s grandma!

Thanks so much Julia + Yuriy for sharing your gorgeous day with us and we wish you the most fun traveling the world together – sounds like such an amazing trip! Thanks also to Benj + Maddie for letting me share your photos today. Benj Haisch is located in Seattle and available for travel world wide.

55 comments

Comments

I love your dress!!! I’m getting married next summer and haven’t gotten too excited about looking for dresses. Just found this page of your beautiful wedding and I fell in love with your dress. May I ask where it comes from?